{"id":4738,"date":"2008-02-16T18:59:44","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T18:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/now-just-thinking-about-how-ch.html"},"modified":"2008-02-16T18:59:44","modified_gmt":"2008-02-16T18:59:44","slug":"now-just-thinking-about-how-ch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/now-just-thinking-about-how-ch.html","title":{"rendered":"“Now just thinking about how choked up I got gives me the creeps”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pretty funny “Dear Obama<\/a>” letter parodying the fickleness of the youth vote.<\/p>\n

\n

I know this is going to sound strange, but it’s not you, Barack, it’s me. Really it always was<\/em> me, but now it’s really, really about me. I don’t know when we started to feel weird supporting you, but: My friend Hanna thinks<\/a> it started with that “Yes We Can<\/a>,” video. I mean, last week I was totally crying watching it. Now just thinking about how choked up I got gives me the creeps. I think I felt something at the time, but even if I did, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to feel it anymore. Feeling inspired is soooo<\/em> early-February. <\/p>\n

Or maybe it started when everyone<\/a> began madly posting<\/a> last week about how you<\/a> are not the Messiah<\/a>. And that got me thinking. Then, when commentators started accusing me of being a venomous drone in a “cult of personality,”<\/a> I just needed to get out. I mean cults are soooo<\/em> 1970s. And cults of personality? So totally first century. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I found the Mother Jones blog entry pretty interesting (Obama’s messiah complex):<\/p>\n

This is our moment to do what? To march? To organize? No. To vote for Obama. As if simply by voting for one man, we make a mark upon this country as indelibly as those who fought the Nazis or sat at lunch counters.
\nBut the easiness of Obama’s movement isn’t what bothers me most. I am profoundly troubled that any candidate would chart the course of American history as follows (and I’m rearranging Obama’s history here to make it more chronological):
\nAmerican Revolutionaries -> Manifest Destiny -> Slaves\/Abolitionists -> Suffragettes -> the Labor Movement -> the Greatest Generation -> the Civil Rights Movement -> Himself.
\nDoes this post play unhelpfully into the pernicious and growing Obamaism-as-cult meme that we’ll likely see repeated over and over by the right wing if Obama gets the nomination? It does. Sorry. But Obama’s rhetoric makes an undeniable suggestion: that his election, not an eight-year administration that successfully implements his vision for America, would represent a moment in America of the grandest, most transformative kind. And that’s a bit much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, this<\/a> will be the theme of the campaign as will the empty suit meme<\/a>. Should be a fun campaign, filled with many parodies. And the left<\/a> is certainly doing their part (hehehehehe) They’re helping to make the movement<\/a> an easy target:<\/p>\n

If you insist on being that party-killing skeptic, it either means you’re a Washington cynic, supporting the worst elements of Clinton’s campaign, or you’re cluelessly out of step with the sway of the culture. On Facebook, people write about dreams featuring Obama. There is only one correct reaction to the will.i.am “Yes We Can” video and that is to start chanting along. That’s why the Obama campaign sent it out to supporters. He is the sun, the moon, the Ambien and the Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Big deal. People like him. That usually happens with the front-runners. They get more votes, and then they win. (Although with these maddening Democratic Party apportionment rules, I think winning also requires hopping on one foot.) But isn’t there a natural limit to our enthusiasm for to this kind of sweeping phenomenon? Isn’t the generation that Obama has so successfully courted usually the first to toss overhyped products, even the overhyped products with which they were at first so enthralled? More generally, shouldn’t Democrats who have complained that George Bush was elected on the strength of a popularity contest be nervous that this blossoming Obamadulation is getting out of hand?<\/p>\n

So far, no one seems to much care. There have been a few pieces<\/a> from columnists<\/a> questioning the messianic impulse<\/a> with Obama, and a mocking Web site<\/a>, but that’s it for backlash. OK, so I’ll say it: Some of Obama’s supporters have gone around the bend. There was the woman in New Hampshire who compared him with Christ<\/a>. There was Maria Shriver’s comparison of the candidatewith the state of California<\/a>, with the rhetorical fervor usually seen only after a preacher shouts, “You are healed!” <\/p>\n

There is also plenty of self-hype to knock down. Obama is not as bold as he claims<\/a> and doesn’t tell as many hard truths as he professes to<\/a>. His Senate record of bipartisanship is fine as far as it goes, but that isn’t as big a deal as he makes it seem. Cooperating with Republicans on nuclear proliferation and lobbying reform is not nearly as hard, nor does it require the same skills, as forging agreement on taxes and spending, judicial nominations, or electronic surveillance. On the day Sen. Patrick Leahy endorsed Obama and I asked him what problem Obama could solve with his powers of bipartisanship, the Democrat from Vermont asserted Kennedy parallels<\/a> rather than name one.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pretty funny “Dear Obama” letter parodying the fickleness of the youth vote. I know this is going to sound strange, but it’s not you, Barack, it’s me. Really it always was me, but now it’s really, really about me. I don’t know when we started to feel weird supporting you, but: My friend Hanna thinks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-2"],"yoast_head":"\n"Now just thinking about how choked up I got gives me the creeps" - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/now-just-thinking-about-how-ch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Now just thinking about how choked up I got gives me the creeps" - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pretty funny “Dear Obama” letter parodying the fickleness of the youth vote. 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